Many conventional cellular phones include a display screen that provides the telephone number of the calling party on the display screen when a call is being connected to the cellular phone. This allows the receiving party to choose whether or not to accept the call based on the displayed caller identification information.
Typically, caller identification (ID) information is included in the call signaling that is used to establish a connection between the calling device and the destination device. This caller ID information may also be provided to equipment other than the destination device. For example, cable operators, sometimes referred to as multiple system operators, who may provide both television services and wireline telephone services to a consumer, offer a service that displays caller ID information on a television. In particular, because the cable operator provides wireline telephone service to the consumer, the cable operator receives the call signaling information associated with any new telephone call that is destined for the wireline telephone of the consumer. The cable operator extracts the caller ID information from the call signaling information, and sends the caller ID information to the consumer's set top box, which causes the caller ID information to be displayed on the consumer's television. This allows the consumer to easily identify the initiator of a phone call without having to view the telephone display.
While the ability for a television viewer to view caller ID information associated with telephone calls directed to a wireline phone is beneficial, conventional wireline phone calls are diminishing and are being replaced by cellular phone calls and voice over internet protocol (VOIP) phone calls. In fact, more and more consumers are dropping wireline telephone service in favor of cellular service and/or packetized voice over internet protocol (VOIP) services. Accordingly, there is a need to provide to a television viewer caller ID information associated with calls that are directed to a wireless destination device.